Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 76 (2017) 865–871

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser

Present situation and future prospect of renewable energy in China MARK

a,b a b,⁎ a a a a
Dahai Zhang , Jiaqi Wang , Yonggang Lin , Yulin Si , Can Huang , Jing Yang , Bin Huang ,
Wei Lib
a
Ocean College, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang province 310058, China
b
The State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power Transmission and Control, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang province 310027, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A BS T RAC T

Keywords: Energy demand in China has risen rapidly and reached an unprecedented level due to the high-speed economic
Renewable energy growth and modern development. As a result, the Chinese government faces a growing pressure to address the
Tons of coal equivalents energy shortage and environmental deterioration, mainly resulting from an over-dependence on fossil energy.
Energy structure China has become both the largest energy consumer and CO2 emitting country in the world in 2015. Utilization
of potential for renewable energy is necessary for changing inappropriate energy consumption structure,
protecting environment and achieving sustainable economic and social development. In view of such mentioned
situation, this paper firstly introduces the energy structure as well as the development status of renewable
energy in China, which includes hydropower, wind power, solar power, biomass power and other renewable
energy. Besides, based on the current situation in China, the paper makes a preliminary prediction of the
development of renewable energy in the country for the future decades, and proposes targeted countermeasures
and suggestions.

1. Introduction however, faces many significant problems, such as shortages of

Along with high-speed economic development and tremendous
energy consumption, China is facing the ever-increasing twin chal-
lenges of energy supply and demand. The total energy production
between 1978 and 2014 increased from 627.7 million tons of coal
equivalents (tce) to 3.6 billion tce in China with an annual increase rate
of 4.83%. The energy consumption increased with the annual rate of
5.58% in the same period, reaching 4.26 billion tce in 2014 jumping by
7.45 times [1]. By the end of 2014, China accounted for 23% of global
energy consumption and 61% of net energy consumption growth.
China is now the largest energy consumer and CO2 emitting country in
the world. As the largest emitter of CO2 in the world, China has
established the target that CO2 emissions per unit of GDP would be
decreased by 40–45% of 2005 levels by 2020 [2]. The unprecedented
pressure on reducing CO2 emissions brings huge challenges to China
[3].
With a tremendous and ever-increasing energy demand, the
Chinese Government faces a growing pressure to address the energy
shortage and environmental deterioration, mainly resulting from an
over-dependence on fossil energy. Coal currently accounts for approxi-
mately 70% of China's primary supply, and will continue to play a
crucial role in powering China's economic development [4].
The coal-based energy production and consumption energy system,
resources, low energy efficiency, high emissions and environmental
damage, and lack of effective management systems [5]. In light of
China's current energy conditions, the inappropriate energy consump-
tion structure should be changed. China is endowed with an abundant
reserve of renewable energy sources which are currently under-
exploited and which offer a significant potential for renewable energy
system development [6,7]. As an alternative, a suitable infrastructure
for the implementation of renewable energy may serve as a long-term
sustainable solution.
Although China has made great efforts in this aspect and great
progress has been made on wind and solar power, the renewable
energy's proportion in China's overall energy mix is far below the world
average [8]. In September 2007, Chinese government announced plans
to nearly double the proportion of renewable energy in the whole
energy mix from 8% in 2006 to 15% in 2020 [9]. While China has taken
substantial actions to develop its renewable energy, as many other
developing countries, renewable energy deployment in China faces the
constraints both from finance and technology [10]. Due to the energy
dilemma, it is thus a long journey for China to optimize the energy
consumption structure and advance the renewable energy to meet the
requirement for sustainable development.
The objectives of the review are:

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: yglin@zju.edu.cn (Y. Lin).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.03.023
Received 1 April 2016; Received in revised form 22 December 2016; Accepted 8 March 2017
1364-0321/ © 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
D. Zhang et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 76 (2017) 865–871

Table 1
Power generation of renewable in China from 2005 to 2013.

Hydropower Wind power Solar power Total renewable

(billon kWh) (billion kWh) (billion kWh) energy (billion
kWh)

2005 397.0 1.9 0.1 401.7

2006 435.8 3.7 0.1 442.3
2007 485.3 5.5 0.1 493.5
2008 585.2 13.1 0.2 601.1
2009 615.6 27.6 0.4 646.2
2010 722.2 44.6 0.9 779.9
2011 698.9 70.3 3.0 808.2
2012 872.1 96.0 6.2 1020.3
2013 911.6 131.9 11.9 1101.3

Power generation of renewable energy in China has achieved rapid

Fig. 1. Total production of energy and its composition.
– To introduce the energy structure in China;
– To discuss the perspective of renewable energy in China when China
intends to approach a renewable energy system in the future;
– To indicate the challenges facing with the development of renewable
energy in China;
– To predict the development of renewable energy in China and
propose targeted countermeasures and suggestions.
2. Energy structure in China
A graphical presentation of the Chinese primary energy supply,
gross energy consumption and economic development over the past 30
years is illustrated in Fig. 1 [11]. With rapid economy growth of China,
the energy production and energy consumption soared. Thus, the total
energy production increased from 627.7 million tce to 3600 million tce
in China Between 1978 and 2014. The energy consumption also
experienced fast increase, which increased by 5.69 times in the same
period, reaching 4260 million tce in 2014.
However, the relative share of the primary energy production
sources hasn’t changed much, one feature is that coal remains
dominate the primary energy production. The other distinct feature
is that the amount of crude oil produced has not increased much, while
the share of total energy production has obviously declined over time,
in particular after 2000; and natural gas production shows steady slow
increase, and renewable energy supply has grown has gained an
impressive share in the composition.
3. The renewable energy resources and current situation in
China
growth in recent years, as shown in Table 1. The total renewable energy
generation in 2013 is almost three times of that in 2005. As we know,
renewable energy resources are abundant, but utilizing them involves
some special technical, economic and environmental problems. The
following part will briefly introduce the development status of renew-
able energies in China.
3.1. Hydropower
China has the richest hydro resources on the planet with a total
theoretical hydropower potential of 694 GW. The 4th national survey of
hydro resources concluded in November 2005 indicates that the
technically exploitable installed capacity and annual average energy
generation is estimated approximately as 542 GW and 2470 TWh/year
respectively, while the economically exploitable ones as 402 GW and
1750 TWh/year [15,16].
The growth of hydropower in China during the past 6 decades is
shown in Fig. 2 [17]. In 2014, China has registered an installed
hydraulic capacity of 304.86 million kilowatt of electricity, and an
annual grid power generation capacity of 1370.18 million kilowatt
hours of electricity, accounting for 22.25% of the total electricity
generated in the country. In addition, it is worthwhile to mention that
the Three Gorges Dam has contributed an electricity output of 84.37
billion kilowatt hours of electricity. The share of hydropower in the
total installed capacity rose from 8.8% in 1949 to 22.24% in 2014 [1],
while the installed hydraulic capacity accounts for a quarter of the one
in the whole world. As planned, the installed hydraulic capacity will
reach 350 million kilowatt hours of electricity, which shows it has a
great potential to develop hydraulic power [18].
Sitting in the world's first place in terms of both installed and

Renewable energy sources are steadily becoming a greater part of

the global energy mix, in particular in the power sector. According to
the “World Energy Outlook 2015″ (International Energy Agency, IEA),
the share of global renewable energy in electricity supply was 22% by
2015 and it was expected to increase to 31% by 2035 [12]. In the
Middle and Long-Term Program of Renewable Energy Development,
the key areas of renewable energy's development from 2010 to 2020
are defined as hydro energy, bio-energy, wind energy, solar energy and
other renewable energy, including geothermal energy and ocean energy
[13]. In recent years, the utilization of renewable energy has received
attention in China. Renewables grew 15.1% over 2014. Chinese
renewables now account for 16.7% of the global total, up from 1.2%
just ten years ago [14]. According to the 13th Five-Year Plan (2015–
2020), non-fossil fuel energy is supposed to account for 15% of the total
primary energy consumption by 2020, respectively. In China, grid
integrated wind, solar, and hydro power generation were 96.57 million
kW, 24.96 million kW, and 304.86 million kW in 2014, respectively. Fig. 2. Growth of hydropower in China during the past 6 decades.

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D. Zhang et al.
Fig. 3. Growth of wind power in China during the past decades.
(Source:CWEA).
generation capacity, China enjoys a hydraulic power capacity that saves
313 million tce, and 600 million tons of CO2 emission.
3.2. Wind power
The wind energy potential in China is considerable, according to the
3rd national wind energy resource survey organized by the China
Meteorological Administration, the exploitable wind energy potential is
600–1000 GW onshore and 400–500 GW offshore. Endowed with
abundant wind energy resources, China's wind energy industry has
experienced a rapid growth over the last decade (see Fig. 3) [19]. The
cumulative installed capacity of wind energy amounted to 180.4 GW by
the end of 2015. The newly installed capacity in 2015 reached 30.5 GW
which accounted for about 48.4% of new windmills globally, both
sitting in the world's first place.
Despite the recent rapid growth rates of wind power in China, the
distribution is uneven and not matched with economic development
(see Fig. 4). Over 28% of the cumulative installed capacity of wind
energy are concentrated in the Inner Mongolia, Gansu Province which
account for only 6.78% of total electricity consumption in China, while
Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong province in the southeast China with
a more developed economy and a highly concentrated population have
only 4.7% of the cumulative installed capacity of wind energy, but
Fig. 4. Cumulative installed capacity of wind energy in different regions of China in 2014 (MW).
(Source: CWEA, 2015).
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 76 (2017) 865–871
account for 20.5% of total electricity consumption.
3.3. Solar power
It is well known that China lies in the northeastern part of East Asia
between 4° and 53° North latitude and 73–135° East longitude with an
area of 9.6 million km2 [20]. The abundant zone of solar energy has a
share of more than 67%, with its radiation of more than 5000 MJ/
m2 yr and more than 2200 h of sunshine [7,21]. Many areas in China,
such as Tibet, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia,
can produce vast supplies of solar energy with annual solar radiation of
more than 1750 kWh/m2 [22]. With abundant solar energy, China
enjoys a fast growth of its solar photovoltaic industry since 2004, which
increases more than 100% averagely per year. China has kept first place
in the world since 2007 in terms of production of photovoltaic (PV)
cells. Ever since March 2009, particularly during 2011–2015, a series
of incentives, including direct subsidies for solar PV installations, a
national FIT scheme, among others, have been implemented by the
government [23]. In response to these incentives, China's domestic PV
market has seen a steady growth, with its cumulative installed capacity
rising from 140 MW in 2008–300 MW in 2009, and to 800 MW in
2010, then surging to 43,180 MW by the end of 2015 [24].
China's solar photovoltaic (PV) accumulated installed capacity has
reached 43.18 gigawatts (GW) by the end of 2015, including 37.12 GW
of stationary PV and 6.06 GW of distributed PV, resulting in a 48-fold
increase of capacity from 0.9 GW in 2010. The newly installed capacity
of solar energy in 2015 reached 15.13 GW which accounted for more
than a quarter of the one in the whole world. The rapid growth rate of
PV in China in recent years is impressive Also as shown in Fig. 5, the
PV installed capacity in China in 2009 accounts for merely about 1.24%
of the total installed capacity in the world, while increasing almost 12
times in 2014, about 14.9%.
3.4. Biomass power
Biomass is a flexible feedstock capable of conversion into solid,
liquid and gaseous fuels by chemical and biological processes [25]. It is
estimated that biomass will contribute somewhere between 15% and
50% of the world's primary energy consumption by the year 2050 [26].
D. Zhang et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 76 (2017) 865–871

Table 2
China's biomass power generation installed capacity during 2006–2012.

Installed Growth Investments Growth Outputs Growth

Capacities rates (×108RMB) rates (billion rates (%)
(million (%) (%) kWh)
kW)

2006 140 168.1 750.4

2007 220 57.14 256.15 52.38 11,079.2 43.82
2008 315 43.18 347.21 35.55 1488.4 37.92
2009 430 36.51 452.28 30.26 2304.8 54.85
2010 550 27.91 586.3 29.65 2948.0 27.91
2011 700 27.27 629.0 7.27 3752.0 27.27
2012 850 21.43 800.0 27.19 4656.0 24.09

change of the total investment is shown in Fig. 8 [29].

Benefited from the natural states and government policy, China has
huge development potential of biomass energy. From a long-term
perspective, the potential of biomass energy in China from 2010 to
2050 is shown in Fig. 9 [30].

3.5. Other renewable energy

Other renewable energies, such as ocean renewable energy includ-

Fig. 5. The accumulative installed capacity of PV in the global and China. [26] Hanergy
Holding Group Limited. Global new energy development report 2015. [27] http://www.
chyxx.com/industry/201403/233757.html. 2014.
Source: [26,27].
The sustainable biomass resource available for energy use can be
divided into five categories: agricultural residues, forest residues,
biomass production on surplus degraded land, organic wastes, and
others [27]. In China, the types of the biomass power generation are
shown as Fig. 6.
As a large agricultural country, China is rich in biomass resources.
The annual available amount of agricultural residues throughout the
country is equivalent to 440 million tce [28]. The annual available
amount of forest residues is equivalent to 350 million tce, and the
annual available amount of manure all over the country is equivalent to
28 million tce. The annual available amount of municipal solid waste in
China equals to 12 million tce. In addition, by the end of 2014, the
installed biomass capacity only reached 14.23 million kilowatt of
electricity and the paralled part was 9.49 million kilowatt. Based on
abundant biomass resources, China's biomass power generation in-
dustry develops rapidly. The growth rates of installed capacity, invest-
ment and output are shown in Table 2 [29]. In addition, the develop-
ment trend of biomass power generation is shown in Fig. 7 and the
ing tidal energy, marine current energy, wave energy, ocean thermal
energy and salinity gradient energy, are currently being studied but
rarely used for commercial power generation, for the reason of high
cost, low efficiency, poor reliability, poor stability and small scale
[31,32]. It is estimated that the total reserve of available ocean energy
resources in China can be in the order of magnitude of 1000 GW, which
have great potential to be exploited [13].
The geothermal resources in China are abundant and widely
distributed, with a theoretic total energy of 11 × 10 6EJ⋅a−1, accounting
for 7.9% of the world [33]. China enjoys a fast growth of its geothermal
power in terms of geothermal heating area over 140 million square
meters by the end of 2010. The largest geothermal power station in
China is located in Yangbajing, Tibet with a capacity of 25 MW and
annual production of 100 million kilowatt hours of electricity [7,33].
4. Perspectives of renewable energy development in China
In September 2007, China's National Development and Reform
Commission (NDRC) issued the Medium and Long-term Plan of
Renewable Energy Source Development to raise the weight of renew-
able energy to 10%, as a proportion of total primary energy consump-
tion in 2010, and further to15% in 2020, which is expected to
contribute greatly to the objectives of saving about 5–6 billion tons
of carbon dioxide emission by 2020.
Table 3 presents the targets for the installed capacity of renewable
energy power generation and the equivalent to saving consumption of
raw coal and CO2 emission in China by 2020 [34]. Based on the

Fig. 6. Types of biomass power generation.

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D. Zhang et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 76 (2017) 865–871

Fig. 7. Development trend of biomass power generation in China.

Fig. 8. The total investments of biomass industry in China.

Fig. 9. Potential of available biomass energy in China.

Table 3
Installed capacity of renewable energy power generation and the equivalent to energy saving by 2020.

Clean coal Hydro Nuclear Wind Bio-fuels Biomass power Photothermal PV Total

2
Installed capacity(GW) 990 300 70 150 0.3 0.3 billion m 20 16
Saving tce (million tons) 376.2 241.6 181 100.1 50 44 30 11.1 1033
Saving CO2 emission (million tons) 978.12 643 481.5 266.3 130 117 78 29.5 2748

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D. Zhang et al.
Fig. 10. Forecast on the energy demand structure in China from 2010 to 2050.
Fig. 11. Forecast on the composition of renewable energy in China in 2030.
national Medium and Long-term Planning, clean coal technologies will
dominant the coal consumption, while the total installed capacity of
hydropower and wind power is going to be 300 GW and 150 GW in
2020, respectively. The solar power has also developed rapidly. The
installed capacity of solar power is 500 MW in 2010, and it is going to
be over 20 GW in 2020. The amount of consumption of the renewable
energy such as hydropower, wind power, biomass power, photothermal
and solar power in 2020 is nearly 500 million tce.
Fig. 10 provides a blueprint of the forecast on energy demand
structure in China from 2010 to 2050 [35]. The coal consumption
keeps stably after 2030, for the reason of the domination of clean coal
technologies in the coal consumption [4]. The total nuclear and
renewable energy account for 15% in 2020, 19% in 2030 and 29% in
2050 of primary energy consumption. Renewable energy, especially the
wind and solar energy, grow fast than ever (see Fig. 11). Wind power
will keep its fast growth rate in the future and the installed capacity is
expected to exceed 150 GW by 2020 and 300 GW by 2030. Meanwhile,
the solar PV is expected to be used widely in China in the near future,
as relative technologies become cheaper and more mature. The
installed capacity of solar PV is expected to reach 200 GW by 2030.
This dramatically changes the China' Energy mixture, and transform to
a low carbon and sustainable energy system.
5. Conclusions
For China, the only way to deal with the sharp conflict between
rapid economic growth and high CO2 emission is the transition to a low
carbon and sustainable energy system, especially the development of
renewable energy. The total amount of potential renewable energy
sources in China is substantial, and it is essential and meaningful to
integrate renewable energy into future energy systems in China.
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 76 (2017) 865–871
In view of the renewable energy resources and current situation in
China, it should be making their own respective strategies of the
various renewable energies. To be specific, hydropower and wind
power should be placed on the primary position of priority develop-
ment at present and the near future, because of the more mature
technology and lower cost. In the long-term, solar power will enjoy a
fast growth development with national policy support, technological
breakthrough and lower cost. Biomass power and geothermal power
will also hopefully grow fast on the condition that resources can be well
guaranteed. As other renewable energy, development of ocean energy is
a long-lasting and complicated process. The urgent matter is to
promote demonstration and commercialization of ocean energy tech-
nologies to ensure a better future.
There are still existing a lot of challenges of renewable energy that
hinder the development of its application in China. First of all, the
weakness of technology and innovation is the key problem. Most of the
key technologies of renewable energy are imported abroad, domestic
enterprises lack the ability of innovation and independent R & D.
Secondly, a significant amount of renewable generation capacity is
wasted because it is not connected to the electricity grid. A tricky issue
accompanying the rapid growth of China's renewable electricity
capacity is the difficulty of feeding renewable power into the grid,
some is due to the renewable electricity quality problems and some are
due to the lack of building or expanding grids to connect to renewable
power plants. Another challenge for China's renewable electricity
development is its low operation efficiency, which impairs their
contribution to meeting overall electricity demand. The last but not
the least, the policies and regulations are not fit for the transient
situation of renewable energy in China. Management, strategies,
programs and policies are separated by too many departments of the
Chinese government, which means there are no plans as a whole. It is
significant to increase efficiency and to cut down the gap between the
renewable energy application and laws. At the strategy level, the central
government should offer stable, long-term, and persistent development
guidance as soon as possible. Technically, the government should first
strengthen renewable energy economy technology and self-innovation.
In the complex system of renewable energy, all of the agents need to be
stimulated: enterprises, consumers, R & D institutions, and especially
the local governments.
Facing great energy challenges and an energy dilemma, China is on
transition to low carbon and renewable energy system for a sustainable
development. It can be expected that renewable energy in China will
get greater development in the future and contribute more to the low
carbon economy.
Acknowledgements
The work was financially supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Grant nos. 51579222 and 51120195001) and
Youth Funds of the State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power and
Mechatronic Systems (Zhejiang University) No. KLoFP_QN_1604).
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